In this lesson, we’ll cover everything you need to know about Korean conjugation. We’ll explain what Korean conjugation is, how to use it, and when to use it. Korean conjugations in Korean grammar determine the meaning, tense, tone, and mood of sentences. It’s important to learn conjugation as you progress in learning Korean. However, you need to change it to the present tense. We’ve added 저는 (“I”) as the subject and then conjugated 가다 (to go). However, unlike in any other language, Korean grammar takes conjugation to another level. Conjugations in Korean aren’t limited to Korean verbs. Other parts of speech, such as adjectives, can be conjugated. Korean verb and adjective conjugations are almost the same. Most of the conjugation rules for Korean verbs also apply to adjectives. Once you learn the Korean verb conjugation rules, it’ll be easy to conjugate adjectives. There are 40 basic verb endings, but there are over 400 verb endings when all are combined. They are made up of different Korean grammar categories, such as the different tenses (past, present, and future tense), honorifics, and voices, to name a few. Common Korean verb conjugations can be classified into two: verb endings and tenses. There are nine Korean verb endings and three verb tenses you can start learning. These verb conjugations will allow you to build your own sentences and express yourself. For example, if you want to say you’re not good at something, you’ll use the verb ending ~지 못 해요 (~ji mot haeyo). If you want to tell your friend of your plan tomorrow or on the coming weekend, you’ll use the future tense verb conjugation. These are a few of the common Korean verb endings you can use for verb conjugation. Similar to English, Korean verbs have present tense. When expressing Korean verbs in the present, the Korean verb conjugations used are 아요 (ayo) or 어요 (eoyo) and ㅂ니다 (bnida) or 습니다 (seumnida). Korean verbs are also expressed in the past tense. When expressing Korean verbs in the past, the Korean verb conjugation used is the 았어요 (asseoyo) and 었어요 (eosseoyo). The Korean verb conjugation used for future tense is the 겠어요 (gesseoyo) and (으)ㄹ 거예요 (eul geoyeyo). Korean verb conjugation is pretty easy to do. All you need to do is drop the 다 verb endings from the verb stem and then add the appropriate verb endings. The correct verb endings to be used when conjugating verbs are determined by the final or last vowel after dropping the 다 verb endings from the verb stem. We’ll get more into the details of conjugations in Korean in a while. The common Korean verb conjugation is the use of 아요 (ayo) and 어요 (eoyo), which gives the Korean verb its polite and present tense form. Let’s use the Korean verbs 자다 (jada) and 먹다 (meokda) as an example. These 2 Korean verbs are both in their verb stem form. As mentioned earlier, verb conjugations in Korean happen by dropping the 다 verb endings from the verb stem. When learning the Korean language, particularly Korean grammar, Korean verb conjugation is very important to learn. As mentioned earlier, it sets the tense, tone, and meaning of your sentences, which are basically all essential elements you’ll need when communicating. Koreans give emphasis to politeness in everything, including their language. Korean verb conjugation will help you show your respect and politeness towards a person. Once you get familiar with the different conjugations, it’ll be easy for you to convey and appear to be respectful and polite. Before learning which part of the Korean verb we need to conjugate, we need to take note that each Korean verb, adverb, and adjective consists of two pieces: a stem and an ending. The first part is the stem, and 다 is the ending. These are usually their dictionary form. When you conjugate any word, you will drop the 다 and replace it with the conjugation. Whenever you conjugate a verb, you only need to think of your tense and tone. The conjugation doesn’t change for the first person, second person, multiple people, etc. These Korean verbs are made up of a verb stem and a 다 ending. In addition to what we already know about how we conjugate verbs in Korean, many conjugations come together with a small puzzle piece that connects the stem to the conjugation in the most natural way. Let’s look at some simple examples of this. As you can see, the puzzle piece slightly changes the verb stem it joins. Most of the time, the Korean verbs play nice with them, so the rules are easy to learn. Simply, when 아 meets 아, it drops out. And when 아 meets 오, they connect together into one syllable; for example, 보 becomes 봐. When the verb stem ends in a consonant after 아 or 오, 아 becomes its own syllable. For all other verb stems, you connect them with 어. When the verb stem ends with 이 the 이 + 어 combination cooks up 여. Only the verb 하다 is different and turns into 해. Some conjugations also require the puzzle piece 으 to be connected when a verb stems ends with a consonant. (으)면, which we will introduce below, is one such conjugation. We’ll go over how to conjugate irregular verbs at a later time. In this part of the lesson, we’ll be showing the different conjugations for 2 of the commonly used Korean verbs 보다 (boda)  and 만들다 (mandeulda). 보다 (boda) and 만들다 (mandeulda) are the dictionary form of the Korean verbs “to watch or to see” and “to make.” Both Korean verbs are made up of a verb stem and a 다 (da) ending. Notice that the Korean verbs 보다 (boda) and 만들다 (mandeulda) have different last letters when 다 (da) is dropped. 보다 (boda) ends in a vowel, while 만들다 (mandeulda) ends in a consonant. Below is a table with the different conjugations for the verb 보다 (boda) that ends in a vowel following the different tenses and tones. The verb 보다 (boda) can also take other forms of conjugation. Let’s take a look at the table below to get familiar with them. The Korean verb 만들다 (mandeulda) means “to make.” Below is a table with the different conjugations for the verb 만들다 (mandeulda) following the different tenses (Past, Present, and Future Tense) and tones. The verb 만들다 (mandeulda) can also take other forms of conjugation. Let’s take a look at the table below to get familiar with them. Here are conjugation examples for the verb 이다 (ida) – to be. You’ll notice that 있다 (itda) conjugates verbs much like 이다 (ida), with only slight changes in the letters because of the word itself. Success! You’ve finished learning how to conjugate Korean verbs and are now ready to start putting Korean conjugations to use in your Korean studies. There are a lot of useful verb conjugations in here, so make sure you refer to this list often. Slowly, you will be able to master Korean verb conjugation. In addition to these verb conjugations, there are many more you’ll later get to learn. You can also learn about Korean particles and how they fit into Korean grammar in general. Thanks for your comment, Jina! To learn more about Korean language, you can check out our article Learn Korean Online: How-To Guide for Language Study. Plus, explore our free Korean resources on our blog, YouTube, and social media. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur vitae lectus urna.